Meeting with several writing teams for social studies in all grade levels, the board asked for several revisions in the first drafts laying out the new standards for history, government and other social studies courses in Texas schools.

Many of the requested changes were for historical figures who were deleted from the standards by the writing teams because they were no longer considered as relevant or to make room for individuals who were added.

When some board members questioned why former Secretary of State and four-star Gen. Colin Powell was being dropped from the standards for elementary grades, they were told that former President Ronald Reagan was being substituted for Powell. That ended the questions.

Marci Deal, social studies coordinator in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district, quickly cooled off one controversy that erupted when the writing team for sixth grade initially recommended that Christmas be dropped from a list of holidays of the major religions in a world cultures and geography course...

Pastors,

Please encourage your congregation to support this film during opening weekend, and please consider sponsoring a theater through your church.  For info on sponsorships, please visit the link above.

This Saturday will be a unique and historic time of prayer in and across Greater Houston!  

At 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, thousands of voices will be uniting in prayer and in faith for transforming revival all across our city! About a year ago when 30 or 40 began to meet on the second Saturday of each month to pray and cry out to God Ezekiel 37:1-10 prayers for 1) revival 2) unity and 3) mobilization of a vast army all across our city, we considered the question:

“Why don’t we meet on a Saturday, and instead of praying at the church, why don’t we head for Houston’s 610 Loop and circle our city with united transforming prayer?”

This Saturday we will be doing exactly that – joining literally thousands of passionate praying Christians from across our city circling the 610 Loop with 38 miles of prayer!

Plan to meet at Grace Community Church parking lot at 6:00 a.m. and carpool to our one-mile staging area at the YMCA at 7903 South Loop (just off Broadway). Parking is available at the YMCA and on nearby side streets just minutes away from the 610 Loop.

Grace Prayer Team Captains will be on-site with signs for parking and logistics information. The City of Houston has asked that all participants be at least 18 years of age to participate.

Special request: We need volunteers Saturday to help with:

·         Parking

·         Prayer Guide Distribution

·         Ushering/Safety/Directing participants

·         Distributing water

·         Clean-up

·         Song leading (accappella) in small groups

If you would like to assist in any of these areas, email bgowan@grace.tv and let us know that you can help and indicate the area you can serve.

Come and invite your friends to join in this historic time of united, transforming prayer. We need to be “in position” on the 610 Loop feeder by 6:50 a.m. and ready to pray and call upon the Name of the Lord at 7:00 a.m. sharp – with ONE VOICE ALL ACROSS OUR CITY!!!  

ALL CITYWIDE PRAYER PARTNERS ARE ASKED TO WEAR A RED SHIRT OR RED T-SHIRT ON SATURDAY MORNING.

Be encouraged! Come in faith! Believe God for spiritual awakening and transforming revival in our lives, in His Church and across our city! For those who will, let me encourage you to do some fasting on Friday in preparation for Saturday morning’s united prayer gathering. See www.houstonlovewalk.com for more information.

As expressed in one of my favorite Christmas songs, as a transplanted Texan from Washington state, I still have difficulty getting in the mood of the season.  As the hilarious country song "White Christmas in Houston" quips, "While you're freezin', throughout this Christmas season, we'll be down here with Christmas cheer and flip-flops in the sand." We may not have white Christmases in Houston – but some in the educational elite want to make sure it is not in Texas textbooks in any form.

A recommended revision to social studies books being proposed to the Texas State Board of Education would remove any reference to Christmas as part of our cultural heritage in favor of the well-known (?), highly recognized (?) and widely practiced (?) Hindu holiday of Diwali.  The reason?  A note from the "experts" explains that this assures that "the examples include the key holiday from each of the five major religions."

We already have a "Christian" reference in the textbook standards with Easter (our apparent quota). So even though Christmas is a cultural, religious and economic staple of the U.S. and has been since our founding, it is again the target of multiculturalism in government schools.

How deep, far and wide is the practice of Hinduism in the U.S.?  According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, it is a whopping 0.7 percent as opposed to 78.4 percent Christian. The point is not to demean Hindus as much as to expose the continued assault on logic, reason and academic standards in general and certainly the Christian faith in particular within government schools...